Blessings of Menstruation and Womanhood
Beloved woman,
I want to invite you to explore that dark place inside of you, the place that we often feel detached from and yet, it happens to be the very portal of our limitless creativity. The place I am referring to is your womb and it is always there energetically even for those women who no longer have a physical body part or their monthly flow. The womb is often thought of as a physical metaphor for consciousness, a place that nurtures and gives life. It is indeed sacred but we do not always honor it as such, oftentimes treating it as a storage place for trauma or toxic memories that we are not ready to face.
Our ovaries are life generators and create a potential for a new life every month. It takes a tremendous amount of energy and resources in the woman’s body to make the egg that if not fertilized, simply bleeds out of the body.
But menstruation is so much more than a healthy purification stage for a woman. This is a time of the month when a woman might feel more sensitive, emotional, tired, and even withdrawn due to hormonal fluctuations. It is advisable to listen to our body’s wisdom and make space for sufficient rest time. Often women feel irritable right before or during their periods and it is good to observe if there is a pattern. Are you irritable because your body wants to rest and you are forcing yourself to be active?
Menstruation is still a taboo in some cultures where women are asked not to participate in religious or spiritual rituals or even refrain from going to temples. Some say: “women are dirty during their menses that’s why they have to retreat”. And this is so far away from the truth.
Truth is that from ancient times women have known that during menstruation we are extremely powerful. Ancients called menstruation “heavenly water”. In tribes, women were asked to report their dreams during their moon time to medicine people, because it was considered that women have increased psychic abilities during this time.
In the past, when we were more in touch with natural cycles of nature, women who menstruated during the new moon phase were believed to be influenced by their instinctual center and their sexual organs. When a woman menstruated around a full moon, her cycle was believed to be influenced more by her erotic center (the brain).
Please understand that there is absolutely nothing dirty about your menstrual blood. In fact, it is full of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The odor that is associated with the healthy menstrual blood is usually caused by a prolonged air exposure or the blood was mixed with the chemicals contained in commercial pads and tampons. If possible, use a moon cup or natural feminine products that are made of pure cotton without the toxic ingredients.
If you are still reading this, I bow to you beautiful woman. It takes courage to want to fully embrace your femininity. It takes courage to make the choice to reconnect with your womb, to honor yourself, and to celebrate yourself as a woman. The monthly bleeding that all women share unites us no matter what else sets us apart. At any one time on this planet, millions of women are bleeding.
My dear bleeding sister, I am blessed to be a woman and to be bleeding with you. I invite you to fully open up to your menstrual cycle and discover a creative force and a healing power in it in my upcoming class The Wisdom of Menstruation and Womanhood.
In this class we will be:
*Honoring the body and emotions during each of the four phases of the menstrual cycle
*Connecting to self through nourishing touch
*Womb breathing for balancing hormones
*Alleviating the symptoms of PMS and cramps through movement
*Activating vocal cords for internal healing and sound meditation
*Purification ceremony as we celebrate each and every woman in the circle
***The class includes both the embodiment work and speaking parts.
Blessings to you dear sister,
Irina Devi
